LOS ANGELES — The Lakers ended one streak, a four-game losing skid, when they beat the Clippers on Sunday night.
And with Tuesday night’s 132-131 victory over the Toronto Raptors, they started another one – a two-game winning streak, their first back-to-back wins in a month.
The Lakers (19-19) were led by Anthony Davis, who scored a regular-season high 41 points – including 20 in the fourth quarter – to go with 11 rebounds and six assists in 40 minutes. It was Davis’ second 40-point game of the regular season and third including the 41 he scored in the In-Season Tournament championship victory over the Indiana Pacers on Dec. 9.
“Just in a great rhythm right now,” Davis said. “My teammates are doing a great job of giving me the basketball in spots where I can be effective. Trying to do everything I can just to help the team get back to the other side, which is winning. We know that without [Jakob] Poeltl, the rim protection wasn’t gonna be there. We just tried to take advantage of that.”
LeBron James added 22 points, 12 assists and five rebounds while Christian Wood (14 points) and D’Angelo Russell (11 points, five assists) scored 25 of the Lakers’ 34 bench points.
The Lakers scored 50 points in the paint in addition to making 28 of their 36 free throw attempts, including 19 of 23 in the fourth quarter, with the Raptors intentionally fouling for the final 24 minutes.
Raptors coach Darko Rajaković took exception to the free-throw discrepancy in the final quarter, with his team attempting two free throws in the fourth.
“I understand, respect for All-Stars and that, but we have star players on our team as well,” Rajaković said. “How is it possible that Scottie Barnes, who is [an] All-Star caliber player in this league, he goes every single time to the rim with force and trying to get to the rim without flopping and not trying to get foul calls. He gets two free throws for the whole game.
“How is that possible? How are you going to explain that to me? They had to win tonight? If that’s the case just let us know so we don’t’ show up for the game. Just give them the win.”
James retorted: “I feel like they fouled and we didn’t.”
Austin Reaves (11 points, seven assists, three rebounds), who has been struggling with his 3-point jumper in January after shooting 39.7% from deep in December, made a pull-up 30-footer to put the Lakers ahead 114-112 with three minutes left.
James assisted Davis on an and-one layup in transition on the Lakers’ next possession, with Davis making the free throw to give the Lakers a 117-112 advantage – their biggest lead of the fourth. Davis shot 13 for 17 from the field and 13 of 14 from the foul line against a Raptors team that was without injured starting center Jakob Poeltl.
But the Raptors didn’t go away quietly.
After Dennis Schröder, who made his return to Crypto.com Arena after playing for the Lakers last season, grabbed an offensive rebound, he kicked the ball out to Gary Trent Jr. (14 points) for a 3-pointer to put the Raptors ahead 121-120 with 1:08 left.
But the Lakers responded with what worked well all Tuesday night: feeding Davis on the interior. Reaves fed Davis for a layup on the possession after Trent’s 3-pointer and James darted a pass in the post to Davis, who had Pascal Siakam (22 points) sealed behind him, before getting fouled and making a pair of free throws to give the Lakers a 124-121 lead with 34 seconds left.
RJ Barrett was called for an offensive foul that wiped out a tying 3-pointer by Scottie Barnes with 24.8 seconds to play. With the Raptors forced to foul, Davis and Reaves combined to hit 10 straight free throws in the final 34 seconds, and the Lakers held on despite 3-pointers by Schröder and Trent in the final four seconds.
It was the Lakers’ first back-to-back wins since beating the New Orleans Pelicans and Indiana Pacers in the In-Season Tournament’s semifinals and championship game on Dec. 7 and Dec. 9. They lost 10 of 13 games after tournament play concluded.
Immanuel Quickley, who fouled out with 3:52 remaining after elbowing Cam Reddish in the face on a drive, finished with 21 points (8-of-14 shooting), five assists and five rebounds in 26 minutes.
After being down on the court in pain for a while, Reddish (13 points on 4-for-6 shooting from behind the arc in 23 minutes) made it back to his feet and made one of two flagrant foul free throws to give his team a 111-109 lead before exiting the game.
Max Christie (six points, four rebounds) closed out the game in Reddish’s place.
Scottie Barnes, who fouled out with 3.2 seconds remaining, led the Raptors (15-22) with 26 points.
The Lakers will close out their five-game homestand with a matchup against the Phoenix Suns on Thursday.
They’ll play the Utah Jazz on Saturday in Salt Lake City before returning home for another six games in Los Angeles (one a “road game” against the Clippers).